Supporting the School
The LTS supports the School of Computer Science in several areas.
Supporting Courses
Example: COMP10900 - First year group project
COMP10900 was the very first course to be supported by moodle was a brand new full year course-unit for our first year students, primarily intended to develop the skills and working practices required by self-directed, reflective learners. The LTS implemented the e-learning environment within the moodle VLE to support this course. The course required students to work both independently; collaboratively in their tutorial groups; and to some extent collaboratively across the entire course. The design of the moodle course site aimed to provide a range of tools to support these three different levels of usage. This included asking the students to keep a on-going electronic reflective journal; wikis and discussion forums to facilitate collaborative project work; and a course glossary to share definitions of key terminology amongst all course participants.
Moodle activities in COMP10900
For a first use of moodle, this was a very ambitious project, but provided us with good insight in the strengths and weaknesses of the moodle VLE.
Knowledge Sharing
In addition to supporting individual courses, the LTS has set up a number of general support forums to provide a place for all students and staff to ask questions about wider topic areas, such as general questions about specific computer programming areas. Students are free to help each other as well as ask more knowledgeable staff questions.
The School's C/C++ Programmer's forum
Our aim is to encourage a very open environment where students can learn from each other as well as academics. We eventually hope to extend this open environment to all courses whereby students who aren't registered on a course would be allowed limited readonly access of non-confidential tools and materials. This will give students the opportunity to privately explore any subject area that interests them, but not interfere with the running of a course or compromise student privacy.
Using technology to support innovative teaching in the School of Computer Science.